


He waits in shadows

by Barantir



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Doctor (Doctor Who), Alternate Universe, Gen, Multi-Era, Ninth Doctor Era, Twelfth Doctor Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-26 17:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18183602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barantir/pseuds/Barantir
Summary: The Doctor had faced demons and perversions that haunted the deepest corners of the cosmos. The Time Lord had struggled, overthrown, and brought galactic armies to a stand still. He had fought would-be-gods in the highest dimensions, and shook the very foundations of the universe, holding back the embodiment of evil.  Through all this, not a fist was clenched, only words spoken and wit sharpened.  Eyes from realities above all took note. Though this was a mere material being, they wondered at his resolve. When would this unstoppable being collide with its inevitable immovable entity?  Curiosity grew in these eternal ones, and they lay moments together, as playthings.  Only a reflection of the gallifreyan could stand against him.  Not of his future, he had already triumphed against one like that.  His past perhaps.  They were however too undeveloped, and these creatures bound within time seemed to melt away at any infraction.  Though... There are other worlds, they mused.  A challenge could be sown, harvested and incubated, there.  Made to fit this game of theirs.  The Great Exterminator.  The Killer.  The Heathen who cannot die.  Through the void he moves, like a dark and sharpened scythe.  Our universe.





	He waits in shadows

He leaned against the door of his rickety old home.  Slowly the young looking man lowered himself to the grassy ground, with the effort of a someone who had seen centuries of toil.  Quickly and sharply he took in the cool autumn air into his lungs.  Every breath pained him, every gulp of air yet another moment of consciousness.   
  
This body was dying.  Death came to visit, for the last time.  She finally got even with this cat of many lifes.    
  
"Took you long enough…" smiled the Doctor, over his romanticizing.  The truth was, no being of some higher world called him home.  His bodily functions were shutting down, and there was not a drop of grace left in this universe.    
  
When he was younger the Time Lord ran from his death or found a way to negate it, but not now.  Everything has its time and everything ends.  A friend, from so long ago, taught him that. In a way, they all taught him that.

Funny how you remember these things. 

He was beginning to remember all those companions, his friends... his family.   
  
All those shining faces, from all those fleeting lives.  
  
One lesson shone brighter than any other.  

Live life and be strong facing the end.   
  
"And never eat pears! HA-" his laugh was cut short as pain shot through his body.  He did not think he'd be scared at the end of his life, yet it did not sit well with him.  The gallifreyan hoped that the people of the universe would braver than him their last moments.  

  
At the end of all things, on the day he was needed most he wasn't enough.  

Total event collapse.  

Not just the collapse of time and space, but the breaking down of the universe.  No way back from this.  No rekindling the fire.  Time unwrapping at every moment.  Even if there was a way, he was done for.

  
The signs came too late.  As per usual, he was the last one to get the joke.  Honestly, all that talking and wisecracking, that was just stalling for his brain to catch up.  Creativity needed time, after all.  Somehow, it always worked for him.  Maybe the universe had a soft spot for her most wayward son, maybe he was lucky.  Maybe that was the same thing.  
  
Not this time though.   
  
That man, that thing.  The Heathen.  There was no way to stop THAT.  Perhaps if he was able to plan for it.  If he wasn't alone.  Had help.  
  
He chuckled to himself. Looking for some way to make things better.    
At least he was still...The Doctor.  
  
Never give up, never give in.  
  
But he had nothing.  
  
The TARDIS was gone.  
The only thing he ever really owned.

  
Dead.  
  
The Doctor's constant companion… destroyed.  She tried protecting him, but in the end the force was overwhelming.  A time vortex canabalising on itself, and a Type 40 TARDIS trying to navigate it?  Like a tissue paper boat floating in a vat of acid

Mournfully he turned his head to look into the entrance of that blue box.

The interior of the TARDIS was pitch-black.  Just a ghostly silhouette of the console appeared to float in mid-air.  She was gone.  His head felt so empty without her.  
  
The ground beneath began to shudder.  
  
"Here we go..." whispered the Doctor.  
  
Slowly the planet would break apart.  The inner mantel would rip through the crust.  Its innards would spew across space.  Each atom would break down into radiation.  This was entropy unbridled.  The Decay would finally become master of the universe.  Events would halt.  Time simply ceasing.  
  
Convulsing in pain he turned over onto his side.  His right heart had ceased beating.  Death came quicker now.  
  
At least the old Time Lord had a view of the night sky. 

  
Earths night sky.

  
Even after all these years of alien skies, this sky, the earth's night sky was strangely the most beautiful.  
  
Earth, his last home.  Always there for him.  
  
"Look at that sky" he grinned while forcing his face up. It still filled him with awe.  Every time he looked at it he gasped in amazement. The stars would slowly flow across the sky, each blinking with a promise for adventure.  Earth's atmosphere would make them twinkle JUST the right way.  He wasn't sure why he considered it the right way.  It just was. And he knew every star.  
  
Even Gallifrey's sun twinkled out there.  The Time Lords would be running around in utter confusion.  The attack came to quick.  It was too late for them to fix the situation, it was too late to escape.  
  
His remaining heart began to falter.  
  
Slowly his vision blurred.  The fear he held minutes earlier melted away.  Most likely some evolutionary response, he wagered.  Or maybe he knew he didn't have to worry about the universe anymore, as they were all heading to sleep.  
  
Yet, within the deepest part of him, he wish he could have done more, held on tighter, and maybe saved someone, something.  
  
Why?  What kept him feeling responsible?  He was useless, even if there was a way.  
  
His visions went black.  
  
_“What would you do?”_   a thought within his own mind questioned.   The voice rung with authority.  

First startled, the Doctor forced his mind to focus.  
  
“Help” he whispered.  
  
_“Who?”_  demanded the voice.  
  
“Yes” was the last thing the Doctor uttered.  
  
That was the last word of the universe.  

 ***

The universe faded and the Great Exterminator moved through the void towards its next meal, breaking open sealed doors long forgotten and passing onto a new universe, our world.

 

***

  
The void of the perished world lay still.

However, there still lingered a single thought silently following this, the Heathen of Time.


End file.
